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Night of Champions (2009)
Night of Champions (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on July 26, 2009, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the third annual event in the Night of Champions chronology. Similar to the previous two events, the concept of the show was that every championship in the company would be defended. It featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. Eight matches were contested on the card. This show was considered a supercard, which featured more than one main event match. The main event matches featured were: Jeff Hardy defeating CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship, Randy Orton retaining the WWE Championship against Triple H and John Cena, Mickie James winning the WWE Divas Championship against Maryse, and WWE Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio retaining his title against Dolph Ziggler. The undercard, featured Chris Jericho and Big Show defending the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against The Legacy, Christian defeating Tommy Dreamer for the ECW Championship, Kofi Kingston defending the WWE United States Championship in a Six-Pack Challenge against Montel Vontavious Porter, The Miz, Carlito, Primo, and Jack Swagger, and Michelle McCool defending the WWE Women's Championship against Melina. The event had 267,000 buys, down on the 2008's Night of Champions figure of 273,000 buys. Storylines Night of Champions featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, ECW on Syfy and WWE Superstars—World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they follow a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers were from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE employees are assigned to a television program of the same name. The main rivalry from SmackDown heading into Night of Champions was between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy in their conflict over the World Heavyweight Championship. One month prior to the show, at Extreme Rules, Punk invoked the guaranteed title match he earned by winning the Money in the Bank ladder match against Hardy; he defeated him, and won the World Heavyweight title, after Hardy had already defeated Edge in a ladder match to win the championship. Hardy received his rematch against Punk on the June 15 episode of Raw in a triple threat match also involving Edge, who Punk pinned to retain the title after Hardy had hit a Swanton Bomb on him. The two had constant confrontations in the following weeks over the legitimacy of Punk's reign before they met at The Bash in a match for the championship that saw Punk get disqualified for striking the referee, leading to Hardy attacking Punk for what he saw as dodging competition (a title cannot change hands on a disqualification). On the July 2 episode of WWE Superstars, it came to light that Punk had suffered a storyline eye injury. Punk's rebuttal to Hardy's accusation was that he struck the referee due to his inability to clearly see a target. To clear up any dispute on to who the rightful champion was, SmackDown general manager, Theodore Long, announced another match for the World Heavyweight Championship between the two at Night of Champions, which was accepted by both competitors. The Raw brand was represented by Randy Orton defending his WWE Championship. After defeating Triple H in a 3 Stages of Hell match at The Bash, Orton was without a contender for the championship, so on the June 29 episode of Raw, it was announced by the special guest host of the week, as well as onscreen matchmaker, Batista, that the title would be defended at Night of Champions against the winner of a single-elimination tournament. The semifinals commenced that night with Triple H defeating Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and John Cena defeating The Miz. Triple H and Cena faced each other on the following week's episode of Raw, only to see Orton's protégés, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, interfere in the match and attack both men. As a result, it was announced Orton would defend the title against both Triple H and Cena in a triple threat match. After winning the ECW Championship at Extreme Rules, Tommy Dreamer had been involved in a scripted rivalry with perennial ally, rival, and former ECW Champion, Christian. The former champion was given a chance to get back into the title picture by having a match with Vladimir Kozlov to determine the number one contender. On the July 9 episode of ECW on Syfy, Christian won the match, thus advancing to Night of Champions to challenge Dreamer. Edge and Chris Jericho had won the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship at The Bash in a triple threat tag team match from incumbent champions, The Colóns, and Rhodes and DiBiase (collectively known as The Legacy). Two weeks following the event on the July 6 episode of Raw, the special guest host for the night, Ted DiBiase (Sr.), announced that The Legacy would challenge Edge and Jericho for the titles. In the coming week on Raw, it came to light that Edge had legitimately torn his Achilles tendon, which required surgery, as well as sidelining Edge for a projected several months. It was announced on the next week's episode of Raw, Jericho had a storyline contractual loophole, which allowed him to choose a new partner to hold the titles with him if Edge were to be injured, thus allowing him to defend the titles at Night of Champions. Following a defense of the WWE Intercontinental Championship on the July 10 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Rey Mysterio was attacked by Dolph Ziggler. The following week on WWE Superstars, Mysterio and Ziggler had a verbal confrontation over what transpired, leading to the announcement of Mysterio defending the Intercontinental title against Ziggler at the pay-per-view. Aftermath The following night on Raw, it was announced by the night's guest host, Shaquille O'Neal, that Randy Orton would defend his title next at SummerSlam against the winner of the Beat the Clock challenge, with the one wrestler out of five- Mark Henry, Montel Vontavious Porter, Triple H, Jack Swagger, and John Cena- who defeats their respective opponent the fastest would challenge Orton for the title. Henry set a pace at 6:49, which went unbroken for three straight competitors until Cena wrestled, which had him beat the time, thus going to SummerSlam. CM Punk, after showing sportsmanship towards Jeff Hardy after their match, came out to address Hardy following a title defense against John Morrison on the July 31 edition of SmackDown, only to assault him before he invoked his contractual rematch clause the following week, only to lose due to interference from Matt Hardy, the match's guest enforcer, leading to Punk assaulting the champion. Theodore Long announced immediately following the match that there would be one more between the two at SummerSlam, which was announced to be a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (TLC). Dolph Ziggler continued his crusade for the Intercontinental title by attacking Rey Mysterio during a match with Mike Knox. This led to Ziggler regaining his contendership the following night on SmackDown by defeating Knox, R-Truth, and Finlay in a fatal four-way match. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Night of Champions Category:Night of Champions Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2009 Pay-Per-View Events